Inkjet printers are useful for producing printed images on receivers (or “imaging substrates”), such as pieces or sheets of paper. Printers typically operate using subtractive color: a substantially reflective receiver is overcoated image-wise with cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), black (K), and other colorants.
Commonly-used inkjet printers deposit aqueous inks on the receiver to form the image. The inks include CMYK colorants, such as dyes or pigments, to provide color. Only a small portion of the ink is colorant; most is the aqueous carrier fluid used to transport the colorant to the receiver. After printing, this carrier fluid is removed or absorbed into the receiver. However, there is a large volume of carrier fluid to be removed or absorbed, and that volume increases with image quality (higher optical density uses more ink) and amount of the receiver surface that should bear an image. Moreover, the volume to be removed per unit time increases as print speed increases, in order to prevent wet ink from sticking successively-printed sheets together (an effect referred to as “bricking”).
To prevent bricking, special inkjet papers are commonly used, especially for high-quality or high-speed printing applications. These papers are capable of rapidly absorbing large volumes of liquid to keep the prints dry. Alternatively, some inkjet printers use drying equipment to permit carrier fluid to be removed more rapidly. U.S. Pat. No. 5,771,054 to Dudek et al. describes a printer in which an inkjet image is printed onto a sheet held on a heated drum. The heat from the drum assists in drying the image. U.S. Pat. No. 5,041,846 to Vincent et al. describes ironing printed sheets with a heated roller to fully dry the printed sheet. However, these schemes require extra equipment, and heating is very energy-intensive.